Could One Country’s Passion for ‘Slow TV’ Be the Next Programming Trend?

A new programming trend is capturing TV viewers in one country, and the television industry appears to be paying attention. Deadline.com reports that Norway’s interest in what’s being called "Slow TV" — shows that stretch for hours and capture slow-moving activities, such as knitting or train travel — could catch on internationally.

"The overall gist of the concept, to which LMNO Productions recently acquired U.S. rights, is a hybrid of unhurried documentary coupled with hours and hours of continuous coverage provided by fixed cameras trained on a subject or an event," the story reports.

Those events have included stacking firewood, a 134-hour coastal cruise and a 7-1/2 hour train ride. A new show, "National Knitting Evening," will feature four hours of discussion on the activity.

"Making ‘Knitting Evening’ sound like a breathless frenzy of activity compared to some earlier Slow TV ventures, seven spinners and knitters will then hunker down to stitch a large men’s sweater in an attempt to break a Guinness world record — for speed, no less," the piece adds.

While these activities are popular among Norway’s population, Norwegian public broadcasting executive Rune Mokleburst told Deadline he believes the format can travel outside of the country. One benefit: slow TV is cheap to produce, with "Knitting Evening" costing only $150,000 to $200,000.